Discovery: Three different scientists isolated boron in 1808. Borax has been known and used for centuries. It was used in ceramic glazes and in metallurgy but no one isolated any element from borax. In 1808, Sir Humphry Davy used electrolysis on borax solutions and noticed a brown mass forming at one electrode. He later used potassium to reduce boron from boric acid. Across the channel in France, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard isolated boron by reducing boric acid with iron at high temperatures. It wasn’t until 1824 boron was identified as an element by Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius.

Name Origin: The name boron comes from mineral it was extracted from: borax. That name comes from the Arabic word buraq, the common name for the stone.

Natural Isotopes:

Natural boron is comprised of two stable isotopes: B-10 and B-11. Eleven other isotopes have been produced in laboratory conditions ranging from B-7 to B-17.